VMware NSX and vCloud Air to Bridge Public and Private Clouds

VMware introduced its unified compute/storage/networking platform for the hybrid cloud. The goal is to create one consistent environment across the private and public cloud to run, protect and manage any cloud-native or traditional application.

A key part of the announcement is the introduction of VMware vCloud Air Hybrid Networking Services powered by VMware NSX, which lets enterprise customers establish a single, secure network domain through a gateway appliance.  VMware NSX is a network virtualization platform that delivers the entire networking and security model from L2-L7 in software.

VMware is now deploying NSX as the networking foundation for VMware vCloud Air. The company said customers will be able to maintain hundreds of virtual networks spanning the private cloud and vCloud Air over a single WAN connection, and share the same fine-grained "zero trust" security policies and network isolation for applications, unchanged.  A phased release of these capabilities will begin in the first half of the year.

VMware also noted support for container-based distributed application technologies, including Kubernetes, the open-source container orchestration project initiated and managed by Google.

"Every traditional industry across the globe is being transformed by software," said Pat Gelsinger, chief executive officer, VMware, Inc. "To navigate and thrive in the face of this change, businesses must be decisive in the face of uncertainty. Today, we are taking another leap forward in helping our customers meet these demands through a unified platform, defined in software, which will offer unmatched choice and extends our innovations across compute, networking and storage to deliver the hybrid cloud."

VMware also announced:

VMware vSphere 6 - re-defines infrastructure and application service-levels and availability.  The latest release introduces 650 new features and capabilities.

VMware Integrated OpenStack - provides developers with open APIs to access VMware's enterprise-class infrastructure. VMware packages, tests and supports all components of the distribution, including the open source OpenStack code, and will provide the distribution free of charge to VMware vSphere customers.

VMware Virtual SAN 6 and vSphere Virtual Volumes - introduces significant scalability and performance enhancements to the company's hypervisor-converged storage solution. Additionally, VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes will offer a new level of storage integration to make external arrays natively aware of virtual machines.

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